Significant Similarities to Large Copper Deposits in Congo and Botswana

In total, American West Metals (WKN A3DE4Y / ASX AW1) has completed 63 drill holes this year on its Storm Copper Project in Nunavut, Canada. This represents 9,756 of the planned 10,000 drilling meters, with the majority (56) being reverse circulation drilling. The aim of the drilling campaign was, among other things, to define additional material for an initial copper resource estimate within the known high-grade mineralization zones 4100N, 2750N, and 2200N. This was achieved with consistently excellent drilling results.

Outstanding Resource Potential

With the 39 drillings conducted in the 41000N zone, American West, which has now earned 80% of the Storm project shares from its cooperation partner Aston Bay (WKN A2AUFP), was able to prove copper mineralization on a large scale this year, which according to American West has “outstanding resource potential.” The mineralization extends flat and continuously over a considerable length sideways.

The latest drilling results, presented by the company today, come from the edge of the 4100N zone, which according to American West strongly suggests that the mineralization remains open laterally in most directions. Already, the company has demonstrated high-grade copper mineralization in 4100N over a strike length of more than 1.3 kilometers, with the thickness now reported at 400 meters. In the company’s last presentation, they were still talking about 300 meters thickness!

High Copper Grades Drilled Again

Highlights of the drilling results presented by American West today include:

– 4 meters at 1.1% copper from only 48.8 meters depth, including 6.1 meters at 2.8% copper from 54.9 meters and 4.5 meters at 1.5% from 67.1 meters depth;
– 12.2 meters at 1.1% copper from 118.9 meters, including 3 meters at 4% copper from 126.5 meters and
– 5 meters at 1% copper from 51.8 meters, 1.5 meters at 1.6% copper from 64 meters, 3.1 meters at 2.7% copper from 76.2 meters, and 1.5 meters at 1% copper from 80.8 meters.

According to American West, these drilling results and geophysical surveys indicate that the mineralization could potentially be extended by another 600 meters to the northeast. Furthermore, it is encouraging that the drilling once again demonstrates the strong correlation between targets identified by these geophysical surveys and copper mineralization. It’s good, then, that the company has numerous untested geophysical targets…

Significant Similarities to Large Copper Deposits in Congo and Botswana

“This year’s drilling program continues to impress as the remaining results from the reverse circulation drilling are now available. The results continue to expand the large-scale copper footprint in the 4100N zone with new thick zones of near-surface copper mineralization,” explained Managing Director Dave O’Neill.

“Now that we have a complete picture of the resource drilling to date, it is clear that all near-surface high-grade copper zones are continuous and remain open, showing excellent growth potential. The arguments for a potential low-cost, high-margin DSO production scenario at Storm are becoming increasingly clear.”

“Our exploration work has also been very successful in yielding new discoveries of near-surface copper and confirming the presence of high-grade copper sulfide mineralization at depth, contained within sediments. These achievements point to the significant size potential of the project and underscore the clear similarities between Storm and the large copper deposits in Congo and Botswana,” O’Neill concluded.

Further Work

Currently, American West is awaiting the analysis results of the fourth diamond core drilling (56 reverse circulation / seven diamond core drillings in 2023) with which they aim to further define the sediment-hosted copper system discovered by the first three drillings below the high-grade surface mineralization. Additionally, results from surface sampling and magnetic surveys over the Tempest target area are still pending.

At the same time, American West is conducting ore sorting, processing, and process optimization studies on various ore types from the 2750N and 4100N zones to confirm the potential for a DSO (Direct Shipping Ore) operation. And last but not least, work on resource modeling and resource estimation for the Storm project continues.

Conclusion: Even though it is currently difficult for copper explorers to please the market, we believe that the drilling results presented by American West Metals are once again very promising. Not only have high grades of copper mineralization near the surface been demonstrated once more, but it also shows that the end of the mineralization in the 4100N zone is still not in sight. According to the company, there is potential to extend the mineralization by 600 meters in the northeast direction alone, indicating the possibility of further significant expansion. Apart from that, we believe that many investors have not even noticed that the thickness of the known mineralization has increased by a third (!) from 300 to 400 meters over the strike length of more than 1.3 kilometers. Given all this, we believe that the upcoming first resource estimate for Storm could positively surprise some observers. Despite all the existing risks, we still consider American West Metals to be very promising – especially since the exploration of the copper system at depth is still in its early stages.